Audio Desk Systeme Ultrasonic Vinyl Cleaner PRO
Audio Desk Systeme Ultrasonic Vinyl Cleaner PRO
Audio Desk Systeme Ultrasonic Vinyl Cleaner PRO
MY TAKE: Clearly, the best best way to clean your vinyl. Simple (even fun) and unbelievably effective. You may have trouble believing you are listening to the same record after a run through the Audio Desk Vinyl Cleaner. - Galen Carol
ANNOUNCING THE PRO! Audio Desk Systeme of Germany announces the next generation, upgraded version of the award-winning ultrasonic LP cleaning system,
the new Vinyl Cleaner PRO.
Incorporating five years of evolutionary enhancements in addition to significant upgrades to internal parts, the Vinyl Cleaner PRO offers better features and performance.
Vinyl Cleaner PRO offers more effective, quieter drying, new premium motor, upgraded pump with ceramic bearings, and improvements to the electronic control system including a dry-only option.
In addition to the standard gray, Vinyl Cleaner PRO is available in optional premium custom finishes including white, black, and red.
Records are precious. Not only are they arguably the best-sounding medium for reproduced music, but they often constitute expensive and sometimes irreplaceable collections. Even with careful handling, contamination cannot be avoided in the long term. It is also well known that residual compounds from the LP pressing process obscure inner detail unless removed by cleaning even new records. There are various cleaning methods available from simply dry brushing to manual wet cleaning to vacuum cleaning and now ultrasonic cleaning.
Audio Desk Systeme's Vinyl Cleaner -
The Audio Desk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner is the first LP cleaning machine to incorporate an ultrasonic cleaning cycle in addition to a more conventional mechanical cleaning (via bi-directional rotating microfiber cleaning drums), and the result is the cleanest LP's ever. Unlike other record cleaners the ultrasonic Vinyl Cleaner bursts millions of microscopic bubbles off the surface of the record, all the way to the bottom of the groove, where no fiber is fine enough to reach. And among vinyl cleaners, the Audio Desk System Vinyl Cleaner is unique in using filtered air for drying, rather than one of the static-inducing suction systems employed by other vinyl cleaning products.
The Audio Desk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner is fully automatic - just place the LP in the slot on top of the machine, push the button, and come back in 6 minutes for a thoroughly cleaned and dried LP (both sides!). Whole new layers of inner detail and air are revealed in the recordings, and of course, most surface noise is eliminated.
Introduction, by Designer Reiner Glass:
“Dear friends of analogue reproduction,
“We have something in common: we all love our record collections and guard our musical companions like small treasures - well aware of the unrivaled sound the black discs offer. Nevertheless, we all know „companions” and their associated side effects: dust, dirt, fingerprints, and the faux pas of the past, all leave their traces. With the advancing age of the disc and increasing levels of contamination, the sound enjoyment dwindles. To put a stop to this only professional cleaning fits the bill, however having exhaustively tested disc cleaners the customary solutions available couldn't wholly satisfy me: either cleaning effectiveness, the associated noise, protection of the disc surface, ease of handling, longevity, or last but not least, the price, left something to be desired. It soon became clear to me that in order to fully satisfy all the listed criteria I would have to look for a solution of my own.
“Four years of development have since passed, the result: the VINYL CLEANER!
“The VINYL CLEANER is a disc cleaning machine that follows a different path: the cleaning process is fully automatic, simultaneously for both sides, ultrasonically, and by means of counter-rotating microfiber cleaning barrels, with subsequent drying. This form of cleaning is not only quieter and more convenient, it is above all highly effective and extremely gentle on the disc's surfaces. Your discs sparkle as never before and most importantly: the sound is closer to the music.
“With the VINYL CLEANER you can acquire a high-performance disc cleaner, which is the realization of that which is possible, and in a cost optimized form, and which you and your treasured record collection will enjoy for a long time to come.” - Reiner Gläss
Technical: How do ultrasonic sound waves clean?
A physical effect called "cavitation" results from the generation of ultrasonic frequencies in a liquid. During the cavitation process ultrasonic "compression waves" are created by an ultrasonic transducer. When the amplitude of this sound wave increases to a level where the surface tension of the liquid is broken, the fluid will "tear" apart leaving behind millions of microscopic vacuum bubbles. These vacuum bubbles then rapidly compress or implode creating millions of tiny liquid jets small enough to clean inside the smallest grooves of an LP. This process, also called "microagitation," displaces any contaminants on the surface of the LP. The designer worked for several years to find just right amount of ultrasonic energy to optimally clean the LP.
The Vinyl Cleaner - maximum convenience
The Vinyl Cleaner can justifiably claim to be the most user-friendly LP cleaner available. It's operation is simple and fully automatic. Place the Vinyl Cleaner on a level surface then add distilled water and cleaning fluid. Drop an LP into slot on top and press the start button - the cleaning and drying procedure runs automatically and the status of the cleaning process is signaled both acoustically and visually by means of the LED display. The length of the main cleaning process can be adjusted - at the touch of a button - allowing one to run a longer cycle for heavily soiled records.
The Vinyl Cleaner - easy to care for
The Vinyl Cleaner uses a special cleaning solution. The solution is a gentle (contains no alcohol), biodegradable product with excellent cleaning properties and outstanding anti static characteristics. Just one container of cleaning fluid concentrate - 2 are included in the delivery package - is enough to clean approximately 100-200 discs (depending on the level of disc contamination). A note - do not use other cleaning solutions in the Audio Desk Vinyl Cleaner. Only the Audio Desk formula is designed for use in an ultrasonic cleaning environment.
The wet filter is easy to clean: saturate with distilled water and ring out. The inspection interval for the wet filter is identical to the replacement of the cleaning fluid. The 4 microfiber-cleaning barrels are extremely robust and therefore only need to be replaced after approximately 500 completed cleaning operations.
REVIEWS:
Soundstage Ultra: "I was quite taken by the Vinyl Cleaner Pro’s overall steampunk aesthetic and mechanics, and by the convenience of its being able to clean a record automatically with one press of a button. And it was a marvel to behold in action. If, like me, you enjoy watching your car go through the various stages of a carwash, you -- and your kids, and your friends, and your friends’ kids -- will be enthralled by the Rube Goldberg transitions this machine makes. You insert your black, tarnished gold into the cleaner’s vat, press the red Start button, and it begins to fill with cleaning fluid -- a proprietary, non-alcohol formula you pre-mix with a gallon of distilled water. The Pro then gently grips and spins the record with four microfiber brushes, while an ultrasonic process called cavitation -- which my dictionary defines as “the formation of partial vacuums in a liquid by a swiftly moving solid body (as a propeller) or by high-intensity sound waves” -- cleans your records for 90 seconds. In this case, cavitation is effected by activating the cleaning fluid to form tiny bubbles, which are then projected at speed at the record surface. After cleaning, the record continues to be automatically spun as it’s air-dried for 4 1/2 minutes, and as wiper blades remove excess fluid. Altogether, the Vinyl Cleaner Pro takes six minutes to clean a record -- it’s not a short process, but it requires nothing of you but pressing that red button. And while it’s doing the work, you can clean up your e-mails or declutter some other aspect of your life.
"I listened to what at first appeared to be a clean record, then cleaned it in the Vinyl Cleaner Pro, and listened to it again. The results were spectacular. The sound was better in every way. I felt sorry for my van den Hul Crimson Stradivarius cartridge, having had to track through all that muck of unknown and uncleaned record grooves, but took solace in the fact that I’m still able to avail myself of AJ van den Hul’s free tune-up after the first 200 hours of use, which he offers for all his cartridges.
"I couldn’t believe what was hidden in the grooves of my records: previously inaudible musical nuances, blackety-black silences between songs, more detailed and precise images, more of this instrument or that intonation, more microdetail. My cleaned records have dramatically less surface noise. They sound better.
"I’m no longer disappointed in the sounds of the vintage LPs I buy from my local vinyl emporium, as compared to brand-new, pristine, 180 and 200gm pressings I buy online. Last month I bought 12 used records for the usual price of two of my online purchases, and each of those vintage records offers unique delights. Among the gems I found for just a few dollars each were Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon (Reprise WB 6376), Traffic’s John Barleycorn Must Die (United Artists UAS 5504), Rickie Lee Jones’s Pirates (Warner Bros. BSK 3432), David Byrne’s The Catherine Wheel (Sire SRK3645), Jorma Kaukonen’s Quah (Grunt BXL1-0209), and Electric Light Orchestra’s Face the Music (United Artists JZ 35527) -- a varied cornucopia of buried treasures within buried treasures. Why people sell their LPs and give up all the pleasures of vinyl is beyond me.
Not having had an original Vinyl Cleaner to compare it to, I can say only that the new model is a truly remarkable component. In fact, this vinyl aficionado now can’t imagine listening to his records without it. Didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas? Get yourself an Audiodesksysteme Gläss Vinyl Cleaner Pro, then fearlessly proceed to your local used-record store or yard sale. There’s gold in them thar grooves." - Tom Mathew
The Absolute Sound - 2014 Golden Ear Award Winner - "The Audio Desk Systeme record-cleaning machine, which hails from Germany, is a revelation. It is revelatory not just for ease of use, but also for the multifarious improvements it renders to vinyl playback. This fully automatic ultrasonic cleaner, which employs a cavitation chamber in which LPs are bombarded with tiny air bubbles to loosen microscopic bits of dirt and grunge while being scrubbed by four rotary cleaning barrels, will leave just about any LP looking almost pristine. Both used and new vinyl benefit from being immersed in the Audio Desk. Bass lines become more audible, the noise floor appears to vanish, and even ticks and pops seem to be mostly effaced. It also seems to be extremely reliable. In short, it is a well-nigh indispensable accessory for any serious vinyl rig." - Jacob Heilbrunn. TAS
"This completely automated record cleaner is simply the state of the art. The ultrasonic cleaning technique loosens dirt embedded in groove modulations that are too small for even the finest bristles. The sonic results go far beyond quieter surfaces. The Audio Desk renders a dramatic increase in resolution, soundstaging, timbral fidelity and immediacy. Once you hear what the Audio Desk does, you won't want to live without it. The icing on the cake is the fully automatic operation: just pop in an LP and watch as the cleaning tank fills, cleans both LP sides simultaneously, and then drains the tank and dries the record." – The Absolute Sound, 2014 High-End Audio Buyer's Guide.
Stereophile: “This machine does more than clean records. Or rather, many of us haven't fully understood the effects of truly cleaning a record, which the Audio Desk does like no other record cleaner I've come across. It doesn't just remove the dust; it clears out gunk from deep within the grooves—gunk we may not have known existed—so that the stylus can track the groove with greater accuracy and less strain.
“Consider the Audio Desk not an accessory but a component...If your stereo system cost tens of thousands of dollars and you play a lot of vinyl, you need to check this thing out.” - Stereophile, September 2013
The Absolute Sound: "A quasi renegade in the record-cleaning world, this machine does not use brushes or vacuums at all. Instead, the Vinyl Cleaner utilizes "counter-rotating microfiber cleaning barrels and an ultrasonic process" to remove the dirt and dust particles from the record. To dry the record, the Vinyl Cleaner uses a "gentle" fan drying process driven by two high-performance motors. Both sides of the record are cleaned and dried simultaneously."
"...The Vinyl Cleaner is convenient and takes up about half the space of the VPI HW-27 in residence. It beats out its closest competitor, the Clearaudio Double Matrix, in effectiveness and ease of use (as well as in price). Every record we have cleaned with this machine is sonically improved. Since the machine does all the work, it is a great luxury if you want keep your record collection pristine." – Harry Pearson
Stereophile: "The Audio Desk Systeme was the most effective, easy-to-use record-cleaning machine I've ever tried. I cleaned records that I'd already vacuum-cleaned but were still noisy, and the noise went away."
“The six-minute cleaning cycle is not a problem because it's entirely automatic. I went on a record cleaning spree..." "I've never had so much fun cleaning LP's. I bought the review sample" - Michael Fremer, Stereophile
The Audio Beat: "After using the Vinyl Cleaner for many months, I refuse to be without it, while my other cleaning machines have sat unused. I will pull them out soon to reacquaint myself with them, although I don't foresee this being a wistful reunion. Better is better, and the Audio Desk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner is that and more." - Marc Mickelson, The Audio Beat
Enjoy The Music: “After the Audio Desk, vinyl looks so clean one might want to own this thing just to have the illusion of brand new records. It's hard to put a price tag on the confidence a clean record engenders. Then there are the secondary gain of not having to clean your stylus nearly as often. (I have yet to test just how often.) Cleaner stylus assemblies mean better dynamics.
“So there you have it, a component – and I think it behooves us to think of the Audio Desk in such terms, no less than a proper preamp upgrade - that improves tracking the music signal from the outset. This results in better timing since the stylus no longer slips and leaps across unwanted debris, adding undesirable comment and changing velocity viv-a-vis the groove as it goes. Accurate tracking yields better resolution, which means improved harmonic coherence, more correct timbres and spatial relationships, and more honest dynamic contrast. And all of these make for less coloration - harmonic and dynamic – less, distortion, if you will. Every record is now that much closer to the unique performance encoded in the groove.
“The Audio Desk is bloody expensive, especially as compared to the competition, if we can still call them that. On the other hand, it is only about half the cost of many a high-end audio cartridge and, since the Audio Desk directly affects a cartridge's performance, its value might be better appreciated. In any case, it's a small fraction of the cost of our record libraries, which will play better than new in many cases after a proper cleaning. So, the gauntlet is thrown. Do you dare to take along a few of your records, old and new, to your local Audio Desk dealer and compare the befores and afters? One thing is certain: neither you nor your records will ever be the same again.” – Leonard Norwitz
NOTE: The Audio Desk Pro includes 2 vials of fluid concentrate (each makes a bit over a gallon of cleaning solution). A container of the fluid concentrate plus a gallon of distilled water cleans 150 new LP's, or 100 used LP's.
Buy extra fluid individually or in a 6 pack where you pay for 5 and get one free.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Cleaning Time: 5 minutes
Size: 13"w x 8" d x 10.7" h (33cm w x 20cm d x 27cm h)
Weight: 12lbs (5.5kg)
Cleaning Solution: 4.5 liters (1.2 gal) of distilled water added to 20ml of cleaning concentrate.
SPARE PARTS & ACCESSORIES:
1. Cleaning fluid concentrate (enough to clean about 400 LPs)
2. Microfiber-cleaning barrels
3. VINYL CLEANER wet filter
TECHNICAL DATA:
- Cleaning of 12“-discs (300 mm diameter)
- Mains adapter with input voltage (110 - 240V, 50-60 Hz.)
- Capacity: approx. 4.5 L distilled water, 20 ml cleaning concentrate
- Cleaning time incl. drying: approx. 6 mins
- Weight without liquid: 5.5 kg
- Dimensions: 300 x 200 x 270 mm (width x depth x height)
- Guarantee: 2 years from date of purchase
Audio Desk Systeme Ultrasonic Vinyl Cleaner PRO
MY TAKE: Clearly, the best best way to clean your vinyl. Simple (even fun) and unbelievably effective. You may have trouble believing you are listening to the same record after a run through the Audio Desk Vinyl Cleaner. - Galen Carol
ANNOUNCING THE PRO! Audio Desk Systeme of Germany announces the next generation, upgraded version of the award-winning ultrasonic LP cleaning system,
the new Vinyl Cleaner PRO.
Incorporating five years of evolutionary enhancements in addition to significant upgrades to internal parts, the Vinyl Cleaner PRO offers better features and performance.
Vinyl Cleaner PRO offers more effective, quieter drying, new premium motor, upgraded pump with ceramic bearings, and improvements to the electronic control system including a dry-only option.
In addition to the standard gray, Vinyl Cleaner PRO is available in optional premium custom finishes including white, black, and red.
Records are precious. Not only are they arguably the best-sounding medium for reproduced music, but they often constitute expensive and sometimes irreplaceable collections. Even with careful handling, contamination cannot be avoided in the long term. It is also well known that residual compounds from the LP pressing process obscure inner detail unless removed by cleaning even new records. There are various cleaning methods available from simply dry brushing to manual wet cleaning to vacuum cleaning and now ultrasonic cleaning.
Audio Desk Systeme's Vinyl Cleaner -
The Audio Desk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner is the first LP cleaning machine to incorporate an ultrasonic cleaning cycle in addition to a more conventional mechanical cleaning (via bi-directional rotating microfiber cleaning drums), and the result is the cleanest LP's ever. Unlike other record cleaners the ultrasonic Vinyl Cleaner bursts millions of microscopic bubbles off the surface of the record, all the way to the bottom of the groove, where no fiber is fine enough to reach. And among vinyl cleaners, the Audio Desk System Vinyl Cleaner is unique in using filtered air for drying, rather than one of the static-inducing suction systems employed by other vinyl cleaning products.
The Audio Desk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner is fully automatic - just place the LP in the slot on top of the machine, push the button, and come back in 6 minutes for a thoroughly cleaned and dried LP (both sides!). Whole new layers of inner detail and air are revealed in the recordings, and of course, most surface noise is eliminated.
Introduction, by Designer Reiner Glass:
“Dear friends of analogue reproduction,
“We have something in common: we all love our record collections and guard our musical companions like small treasures - well aware of the unrivaled sound the black discs offer. Nevertheless, we all know „companions” and their associated side effects: dust, dirt, fingerprints, and the faux pas of the past, all leave their traces. With the advancing age of the disc and increasing levels of contamination, the sound enjoyment dwindles. To put a stop to this only professional cleaning fits the bill, however having exhaustively tested disc cleaners the customary solutions available couldn't wholly satisfy me: either cleaning effectiveness, the associated noise, protection of the disc surface, ease of handling, longevity, or last but not least, the price, left something to be desired. It soon became clear to me that in order to fully satisfy all the listed criteria I would have to look for a solution of my own.
“Four years of development have since passed, the result: the VINYL CLEANER!
“The VINYL CLEANER is a disc cleaning machine that follows a different path: the cleaning process is fully automatic, simultaneously for both sides, ultrasonically, and by means of counter-rotating microfiber cleaning barrels, with subsequent drying. This form of cleaning is not only quieter and more convenient, it is above all highly effective and extremely gentle on the disc's surfaces. Your discs sparkle as never before and most importantly: the sound is closer to the music.
“With the VINYL CLEANER you can acquire a high-performance disc cleaner, which is the realization of that which is possible, and in a cost optimized form, and which you and your treasured record collection will enjoy for a long time to come.” - Reiner Gläss
Technical: How do ultrasonic sound waves clean?
A physical effect called "cavitation" results from the generation of ultrasonic frequencies in a liquid. During the cavitation process ultrasonic "compression waves" are created by an ultrasonic transducer. When the amplitude of this sound wave increases to a level where the surface tension of the liquid is broken, the fluid will "tear" apart leaving behind millions of microscopic vacuum bubbles. These vacuum bubbles then rapidly compress or implode creating millions of tiny liquid jets small enough to clean inside the smallest grooves of an LP. This process, also called "microagitation," displaces any contaminants on the surface of the LP. The designer worked for several years to find just right amount of ultrasonic energy to optimally clean the LP.
The Vinyl Cleaner - maximum convenience
The Vinyl Cleaner can justifiably claim to be the most user-friendly LP cleaner available. It's operation is simple and fully automatic. Place the Vinyl Cleaner on a level surface then add distilled water and cleaning fluid. Drop an LP into slot on top and press the start button - the cleaning and drying procedure runs automatically and the status of the cleaning process is signaled both acoustically and visually by means of the LED display. The length of the main cleaning process can be adjusted - at the touch of a button - allowing one to run a longer cycle for heavily soiled records.
The Vinyl Cleaner - easy to care for
The Vinyl Cleaner uses a special cleaning solution. The solution is a gentle (contains no alcohol), biodegradable product with excellent cleaning properties and outstanding anti static characteristics. Just one container of cleaning fluid concentrate - 2 are included in the delivery package - is enough to clean approximately 100-200 discs (depending on the level of disc contamination). A note - do not use other cleaning solutions in the Audio Desk Vinyl Cleaner. Only the Audio Desk formula is designed for use in an ultrasonic cleaning environment.
The wet filter is easy to clean: saturate with distilled water and ring out. The inspection interval for the wet filter is identical to the replacement of the cleaning fluid. The 4 microfiber-cleaning barrels are extremely robust and therefore only need to be replaced after approximately 500 completed cleaning operations.
REVIEWS:
Soundstage Ultra: "I was quite taken by the Vinyl Cleaner Pro’s overall steampunk aesthetic and mechanics, and by the convenience of its being able to clean a record automatically with one press of a button. And it was a marvel to behold in action. If, like me, you enjoy watching your car go through the various stages of a carwash, you -- and your kids, and your friends, and your friends’ kids -- will be enthralled by the Rube Goldberg transitions this machine makes. You insert your black, tarnished gold into the cleaner’s vat, press the red Start button, and it begins to fill with cleaning fluid -- a proprietary, non-alcohol formula you pre-mix with a gallon of distilled water. The Pro then gently grips and spins the record with four microfiber brushes, while an ultrasonic process called cavitation -- which my dictionary defines as “the formation of partial vacuums in a liquid by a swiftly moving solid body (as a propeller) or by high-intensity sound waves” -- cleans your records for 90 seconds. In this case, cavitation is effected by activating the cleaning fluid to form tiny bubbles, which are then projected at speed at the record surface. After cleaning, the record continues to be automatically spun as it’s air-dried for 4 1/2 minutes, and as wiper blades remove excess fluid. Altogether, the Vinyl Cleaner Pro takes six minutes to clean a record -- it’s not a short process, but it requires nothing of you but pressing that red button. And while it’s doing the work, you can clean up your e-mails or declutter some other aspect of your life.
"I listened to what at first appeared to be a clean record, then cleaned it in the Vinyl Cleaner Pro, and listened to it again. The results were spectacular. The sound was better in every way. I felt sorry for my van den Hul Crimson Stradivarius cartridge, having had to track through all that muck of unknown and uncleaned record grooves, but took solace in the fact that I’m still able to avail myself of AJ van den Hul’s free tune-up after the first 200 hours of use, which he offers for all his cartridges.
"I couldn’t believe what was hidden in the grooves of my records: previously inaudible musical nuances, blackety-black silences between songs, more detailed and precise images, more of this instrument or that intonation, more microdetail. My cleaned records have dramatically less surface noise. They sound better.
"I’m no longer disappointed in the sounds of the vintage LPs I buy from my local vinyl emporium, as compared to brand-new, pristine, 180 and 200gm pressings I buy online. Last month I bought 12 used records for the usual price of two of my online purchases, and each of those vintage records offers unique delights. Among the gems I found for just a few dollars each were Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon (Reprise WB 6376), Traffic’s John Barleycorn Must Die (United Artists UAS 5504), Rickie Lee Jones’s Pirates (Warner Bros. BSK 3432), David Byrne’s The Catherine Wheel (Sire SRK3645), Jorma Kaukonen’s Quah (Grunt BXL1-0209), and Electric Light Orchestra’s Face the Music (United Artists JZ 35527) -- a varied cornucopia of buried treasures within buried treasures. Why people sell their LPs and give up all the pleasures of vinyl is beyond me.
Not having had an original Vinyl Cleaner to compare it to, I can say only that the new model is a truly remarkable component. In fact, this vinyl aficionado now can’t imagine listening to his records without it. Didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas? Get yourself an Audiodesksysteme Gläss Vinyl Cleaner Pro, then fearlessly proceed to your local used-record store or yard sale. There’s gold in them thar grooves." - Tom Mathew
The Absolute Sound - 2014 Golden Ear Award Winner - "The Audio Desk Systeme record-cleaning machine, which hails from Germany, is a revelation. It is revelatory not just for ease of use, but also for the multifarious improvements it renders to vinyl playback. This fully automatic ultrasonic cleaner, which employs a cavitation chamber in which LPs are bombarded with tiny air bubbles to loosen microscopic bits of dirt and grunge while being scrubbed by four rotary cleaning barrels, will leave just about any LP looking almost pristine. Both used and new vinyl benefit from being immersed in the Audio Desk. Bass lines become more audible, the noise floor appears to vanish, and even ticks and pops seem to be mostly effaced. It also seems to be extremely reliable. In short, it is a well-nigh indispensable accessory for any serious vinyl rig." - Jacob Heilbrunn. TAS
"This completely automated record cleaner is simply the state of the art. The ultrasonic cleaning technique loosens dirt embedded in groove modulations that are too small for even the finest bristles. The sonic results go far beyond quieter surfaces. The Audio Desk renders a dramatic increase in resolution, soundstaging, timbral fidelity and immediacy. Once you hear what the Audio Desk does, you won't want to live without it. The icing on the cake is the fully automatic operation: just pop in an LP and watch as the cleaning tank fills, cleans both LP sides simultaneously, and then drains the tank and dries the record." – The Absolute Sound, 2014 High-End Audio Buyer's Guide.
Stereophile: “This machine does more than clean records. Or rather, many of us haven't fully understood the effects of truly cleaning a record, which the Audio Desk does like no other record cleaner I've come across. It doesn't just remove the dust; it clears out gunk from deep within the grooves—gunk we may not have known existed—so that the stylus can track the groove with greater accuracy and less strain.
“Consider the Audio Desk not an accessory but a component...If your stereo system cost tens of thousands of dollars and you play a lot of vinyl, you need to check this thing out.” - Stereophile, September 2013
The Absolute Sound: "A quasi renegade in the record-cleaning world, this machine does not use brushes or vacuums at all. Instead, the Vinyl Cleaner utilizes "counter-rotating microfiber cleaning barrels and an ultrasonic process" to remove the dirt and dust particles from the record. To dry the record, the Vinyl Cleaner uses a "gentle" fan drying process driven by two high-performance motors. Both sides of the record are cleaned and dried simultaneously."
"...The Vinyl Cleaner is convenient and takes up about half the space of the VPI HW-27 in residence. It beats out its closest competitor, the Clearaudio Double Matrix, in effectiveness and ease of use (as well as in price). Every record we have cleaned with this machine is sonically improved. Since the machine does all the work, it is a great luxury if you want keep your record collection pristine." – Harry Pearson
Stereophile: "The Audio Desk Systeme was the most effective, easy-to-use record-cleaning machine I've ever tried. I cleaned records that I'd already vacuum-cleaned but were still noisy, and the noise went away."
“The six-minute cleaning cycle is not a problem because it's entirely automatic. I went on a record cleaning spree..." "I've never had so much fun cleaning LP's. I bought the review sample" - Michael Fremer, Stereophile
The Audio Beat: "After using the Vinyl Cleaner for many months, I refuse to be without it, while my other cleaning machines have sat unused. I will pull them out soon to reacquaint myself with them, although I don't foresee this being a wistful reunion. Better is better, and the Audio Desk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner is that and more." - Marc Mickelson, The Audio Beat
Enjoy The Music: “After the Audio Desk, vinyl looks so clean one might want to own this thing just to have the illusion of brand new records. It's hard to put a price tag on the confidence a clean record engenders. Then there are the secondary gain of not having to clean your stylus nearly as often. (I have yet to test just how often.) Cleaner stylus assemblies mean better dynamics.
“So there you have it, a component – and I think it behooves us to think of the Audio Desk in such terms, no less than a proper preamp upgrade - that improves tracking the music signal from the outset. This results in better timing since the stylus no longer slips and leaps across unwanted debris, adding undesirable comment and changing velocity viv-a-vis the groove as it goes. Accurate tracking yields better resolution, which means improved harmonic coherence, more correct timbres and spatial relationships, and more honest dynamic contrast. And all of these make for less coloration - harmonic and dynamic – less, distortion, if you will. Every record is now that much closer to the unique performance encoded in the groove.
“The Audio Desk is bloody expensive, especially as compared to the competition, if we can still call them that. On the other hand, it is only about half the cost of many a high-end audio cartridge and, since the Audio Desk directly affects a cartridge's performance, its value might be better appreciated. In any case, it's a small fraction of the cost of our record libraries, which will play better than new in many cases after a proper cleaning. So, the gauntlet is thrown. Do you dare to take along a few of your records, old and new, to your local Audio Desk dealer and compare the befores and afters? One thing is certain: neither you nor your records will ever be the same again.” – Leonard Norwitz
NOTE: The Audio Desk Pro includes 2 vials of fluid concentrate (each makes a bit over a gallon of cleaning solution). A container of the fluid concentrate plus a gallon of distilled water cleans 150 new LP's, or 100 used LP's.
Buy extra fluid individually or in a 6 pack where you pay for 5 and get one free.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Cleaning Time: 5 minutes
Size: 13"w x 8" d x 10.7" h (33cm w x 20cm d x 27cm h)
Weight: 12lbs (5.5kg)
Cleaning Solution: 4.5 liters (1.2 gal) of distilled water added to 20ml of cleaning concentrate.
SPARE PARTS & ACCESSORIES:
1. Cleaning fluid concentrate (enough to clean about 400 LPs)
2. Microfiber-cleaning barrels
3. VINYL CLEANER wet filter
TECHNICAL DATA:
- Cleaning of 12“-discs (300 mm diameter)
- Mains adapter with input voltage (110 - 240V, 50-60 Hz.)
- Capacity: approx. 4.5 L distilled water, 20 ml cleaning concentrate
- Cleaning time incl. drying: approx. 6 mins
- Weight without liquid: 5.5 kg
- Dimensions: 300 x 200 x 270 mm (width x depth x height)
- Guarantee: 2 years from date of purchase